Survey Data
Reg No
50011151
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Magdalen Laundry
Original Use
Laundry
Date
1850 - 1870
Coordinates
316509, 235094
Date Recorded
14/10/2011
Date Updated
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Description
Detached two-storey eleven-bay brick building, built c.1860, as part of Our Lady of Charity Refuge Convent, fronting onto Railway Street and forming part of southern boundary of convent. Currently not in use. Pitched slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, gabled dormers to south pitch and three profiled stepped yellow brick chimneystacks. Limestone coping to either gable end with limestone kneeler stones and ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering on iron brackets and cast-iron downpipes. Yellow brick walls laid in Flemish bond to north and west elevations, roughcast rendered to south and east elevations. Gauged brick segmental-headed window and door openings with brick reveals, limestone sills and two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed window openings to south elevation, blocked up with steel security mesh. Round-headed stair hall window to north elevation with timber sliding sash window having margin lights. Several steel sheets to ground floor openings. Tall yellow brick carriage arch screen to west, fronting onto Railway Street, with segmental carriage arch, replacement steel gates, blind rectangular panel and ceramic tiled cross above panel.
Appraisal
This Victorian brick convent outbuilding, together with remnants of other convent buildings and gateways, presents an almost derelict appearance onto Railway Street. The convent has an emotive history as a Magdalen Laundry which remained in use until the end of the twentieth century, providing a reminder of the growth of Catholic institutions during the later part of the nineteenth century. As part of the convent complex, the outbuilding may have been used as the laundry building and adds to the variety of nineteenth-century structures in the complex.